Before calamitous blow to her authority, Arlene Foster ignored senior DUP figures’ warnings

This morning the Nolan Show reported that a senior DUP source had told it that Nigel Dodds, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and Sammy Wilson had all told the DUP leader to pause and not to rush ahead with the controversial Executive Committee (Functions) Bill - but she ignored their advice.
The BBC said that the DUP did not deny that those three individuals had asked Mrs Foster to act differently.
East Antrim MP Sammy Wilson had been said by other DUP members over recent days to have been unhappy at how the bill was being handled and he has long been unafraid to speak his mind – both internally and externally.

However, the other two figures are far less prone to rebellion and indicate how isolated Mrs Foster’s position on the legislation became.

Mr Dodds, the former North Belfast MP, is a hugely respected figure across the various wings of the party and since losing his seat in December has been doing some backroom work for the DUP.

Sir Jeffrey, the party’s Westminster leader, is a significant figure to have aligned himself with those warning the First Minister on the bill because he is the heir apparent to Mrs Foster and has now put distance between himself and any major problems which stem from the legislation which Mrs Foster and Michelle O’Neill rammed through the Assembly on Tuesday night.

None of the three responded to calls from the News Letter today.

However, other DUP sources said that they were aware the trio had advised Mrs Foster against acting as she did.

Mrs Foster saw 11 of her MLAs – including three party officers – rebel against the party whip on Tuesday night, unnerved by warnings from the First Minister’s former spad Richard Bullick that the legislation undoes long-standing DUP policy designed to restrict the power of Sinn Fein ministers.

Another two MLAs did not vote at all, even though they could have voted by proxy, allowing the chief whip to vote on their behalf.

Multiple DUP sources have told the News Letter that there were frantic efforts by the party hierarchy to convince the MLAs not to rebel.

However, having failed to do so, the DUP today claimed that there had not really been a proper whip in place and that the leadership did not mind the rebellion.

The DUP said today that the bill was “a very technical piece of legislation, which was the subject of considerable legal input from senior government lawyers.
“Bills would not normally be accelerated and in recognition that some members would have liked more time to debate this bill, we relaxed our whip on the matter on this occasion.”

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